John Carmack Shows Rage Running At 60FPS On iPhone 4 At QuakeCon

There have been rumors of late that Android 3.0 will be Google's first
major swing at the gaming market when it comes to smartphones. If this
video demonstration is any indication of what's to come on iOS, the
battle may already be over by the time Android 3.0 hits the airwaves.
John Carmack, one of the most famous game designers in the history of
the industry, is responsible for such famous titles as Doom, Quake and
Wolfenstein 3D. He's also responsible for the development of Rage, a
highly advanced and complex (in terms of polygon count) video game that
has yet to hit the market. The PC version is expected sometime soon, but
an iPad and iPhone version could land even sooner.

At an event at QuakeCon in Dallas, Carmack blew everyone away with a
beautiful demonstration of Rage running on an iPhone 4. Aside from
having an A4 processor, Apple has kept the video processor capabilities
of the phone a secret from the public. Whatever is in there has some
serious power behind it, as Rage was shown running at 60 frames per
second, complete with MegaTextures enabled. John said that the game
looked best on iPad, but would actually still run on even the iPhone
3GS. That's totally impressive, and it's probably just as impressive to
think of the coding that had to be done to make this happen as it is the
GPU system within the iPad and iPhone families.

According to reports, the iOS version of Rage will debut this year on
the App Store, and it will be available for a lower price in line with
what other high-res games are selling for. A second Rage iPhone game is
expected to ship alongside the PC and console version next year, but
Carmack is still evaluating the demand on Android before committing to
making a Google-enabled port. The video below shows the demo, which is
mind blowing on a number of levels. And it begs the question: if Carmack
can do this with Rage, what other amazing iPhone and iPad games could
be created with the right coding?